Re: First all-grain attempt (American-malt Beamish)

Kidder <traviskidder@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Okay, yesterday was my first all-grain brew. It went okay I guess.
Mash and sparge temperatures were both really low. The mash started
out at 145 so I added a gallon of ~180 water and it only brought it up
to 147. After an hour it was down to 140. First sparge water, 1 gallon
boiling, only brought it up to 155 I believe, not the 168 I wanted. Oh
well, let it sit for 10 minutes, vorlaufed and collected about 3
gallons. Heated 3.5 gallons to 190, poured in, let sit for 10 minutes.
Again the temp was only around 155. Vorlaufed and collected around
3.25 gallons.

So I continued, boiled and hopped as normal. Took forever to get 6.25
gallons of wort to boil, even on the propane burner, but it eventually
did. My homemade 25' immersion chiller took around 20-25 minutes to
cool down to 80F...not bad I guess. Pitched a vial of WLP004 (also
first time using liquid yeast). Do you normally have to let the vial
rest for a while after shaking? I shook it hard and then opened it and
it nearly exploded on me. Luckily I didn't lose a lot of yeast.

Now the questions...I realize the low mash temp will produce a more
fermentable wort, dryer. Anything else it will do to the beer? What
drastic effects will the low sparge temp produce? The target SG
(according to Beer Captured) was 1.044, I checked just prior to
pitching the yeast and got an SG of 1.040-1.042 (1.036-038 @ 80F). So
I'm fairly close to the target. The wort actually tasted really
good...coffee, chocolate, very dry, roasty. So pretty much what a dry
Irish stout should taste like.

Next time I'll raise my strike temperature higher as well as my sparge
temps. The grains were also in my basement (55-60F) prior to the mash
so that may have had an effect. Maybe next time I'll preheat my cooler
with hot water.

All in all it was really fun and I'm actually glad I made the mistakes
that I did, now I know what to compensate for next time. I know how my
particular system behaves now as well. Can't wait until the next batch!


Definitely pre-heat you're cooler. At least with my setup, that makes
a huge difference. How did you arrive at your strike temperatures? Did
you calculate them? f you calculated them, you may want to pre-heat
your cooler and use the same temps again. Just a thought. If I miss my
strike mash temp, I usually make up the difference with blasts of
boiling water from my tea kettle. 180F water has too small of an
effect on a 145F mash of grains :-)

I use the strike and infusion water calculations to get me in the
ballpark. I keep tweezing it and taking notes. Some of my brews that
I've made many times I now nail everytime on the first strike, due to
my notes.

Makes for a busybody brewday, does it not?

Also: 80F is a bit warm for pitching, and you really should have made
a 2 liter starter with that vial of 004, but for such a low gravity
beer, you should be fine.

-----------------------------------------------
John Bleichert syborg@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
The heat from below can burn your eyes out!!
.

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